The SHOW HIO recently received a recommendation from its Rules Committee to change the “Relative of a Professional” designation in its 2023 updated rulebook. In addition, the committee has recommended a “secondary” rule for shows under 100 entries in a single night and 150 entries for multi-night shows.
SHOW will accept comments from the public on these rules for two weeks with a comment period ending Wednesday March 8, 2023. All comments can be emailed to the SHOW office at rreed@showhio.com.
The old rule read as follows and can be found in the current rulebook on page 13.
F. Amateur and Professional Status
(3) Relative of a Professional
(a.) Any Member of a professional’s family who has reached his/her 18th birthday is a professional if he/she aids or assists in the activities which make the aforesaid a professional.
(b.) Any member of a trainer’s immediate family who has reached his/her 18th birthday shall be considered a professional if he/she shows a customer’s horse. This provision shall apply to exhibiting at any horse show. Exception: A trainer’s immediate family may show a customer’s or co-owned horse in an open class and not jeopardize their amateur status.
(c.) The doing of clerical work of itself or the giving of financial aid of itself is not to be deemed “aiding or assisting”.
The committee is proposing the following change and new rules:
(3) Significant Relations to a Professional
• Significant Relations to a Professional is defined as following:
1. A person who is the spouse of a professional.
2. A person who is a parent or stepparent of a professional.
3. A person who has any of the following relations to a professional by blood, marriage, or adoption: child (who no longer qualifies as a youth exhibitor), sibling, half sibling, aunt, uncle, nephew, niece, first cousin, grandparent, great- grandparent, great-uncle, great-aunt, ‘steps’ of the same relation as any of the above, in-laws of the same relation as any of the above.
4. A person who is an adult who jointly resides intermittently or regularly in the same dwelling as a professional but is not a professional’s spouse.
(a.) Any person with Significant Relations to a Professional who has reached his/her 18th birthday is a professional if he/she aids or assists in the activities which make the aforesaid a professional.
(b.) Any person with Significant Relations to a Professional cannot exhibit in an amateur class at any horse show on a horse not solely owned by his/herself. Exception: A person with Significant Relations to a Professional may show a customer’s or co-owned horse in an open class and not jeopardize their amateur status.
(c.) The doing of clerical work of itself or the giving of financial aid of itself is not to be deemed “aiding and assisting”.
The committee has also recommended the following “new” rule be added to the rulebook and go into effect for the 2023 show season:
(4) Secondary Horse Show Amateur Exception
Any single day horse show with less than 100 entries or multi-day horse show with less than 150 entries at the previous year’s outing of the same show will qualify as being a “Secondary Horse Show”. In the case of a Secondary Horse Show, an amateur will be considered as anyone who does not possess a professional license, regardless of relation to a professional.
Shows proceeding as a Secondary Horse Show MUST designate so on their class sheet. A show may qualify as a Secondary Horse Show but choose not to proceed as one. In that case, normal SHOW rules of amateur status (Section F, 1-3) will apply.